Zionism’s cultural appropriation of indigenous Palestinian folklore and cuisine – such as hummus, falafel and maftoul – as “Israeli” has long irked Palestinians. Now, Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank are attempting to steal perhaps the most important symbol and source of economic sustenance for rural Palestinians: olive oil and olive culture.

NGO Monitor, the Israeli far-right group that wages campaigns of defamation against organizations that don’t toe their anti-Palestinian line, has launched a new campaign against the Center for American Progress, a Washington think-tank tied to the Democratic Party.

The campaign has also been joined by Commentary, the far-right publication notorious for its anti-Palestinian sentiment.

A worker at an Israeli media pressure group used her low dissertation mark as a post-graduate student at University of Warwick to smear a professor involved in Palestine solidarity activism this month.

Israel’s Reut Institute, which notoriously called on Israeli government agencies to “sabotage” and “attack” the Palestine solidarity movement – and then tried to conceal it – is claiming credit for “price tag” attacks on The Electronic Intifada, the Palestine Return Centre, the Irvine 11 and others.

The Dutch Foreign Minister, Uri Rosenthal, who attempted to stifle The Electronic Intifada last year by pressuring one of its donors, and has directly threatened Dutch civil society for defying his pro-Israel policies, is now supposedly an advocate of “Internet freedom.”

An anti-Palestinian conference due to take place in the UK tomorrow has barred The Electronic Intifada from attending the event, despite admitting other journalists will be given free entry.
“The Big Tent For Israel” in Manchester will bring together an alliance of pro-Israel groups specifically to combat the increasingly successful Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). New Israeli ambassador Daniel Tuab is due to address the conference as keynote speaker, according to its program.
The event is focused on a 2010 report by influential Israeli think tank the Reut Institute, which named London as the “hub of hubs of delegitimization”.